Love: 'Wilson will rejoin Beach Boys'

Mike Love has claimed that Brian Wilson will rejoin the Beach Boys next year to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

Wilson was the group's leader and chief songwriter but was pushed to the periphery after the cancellation of the Smile project in 1967. In recent years, Love and Bruce Johnston have led a touring version of the Beach Boys which does not include Wilson.

Love told the Las Vegas Sun: "Close your eyes and not only do we today replicate exactly how the original songs sounded, but the technology has gotten better so we even sound better.

"We began in the fall of 1961, and our first tour was in 1962, and it's been nonstop since then. Now we're gearing up for the 50th anniversary, and Brian Wilson, who has been working on some unfinished Gershwin music project, will rejoin us."

Asked to name his top Beach Boys song, Love said: "It's very difficult to pick a real favourite. I'm proudest of all, though, with 'Good Vibrations'.

"I think it really says what we are all about. We must have played it somewhere over 7,500 times over the years... If I had a nickel for every... fortunately, I do!"

Love is widely reported to have dismissed Wilson's 'Good Vibrations' as "avant garde s**t" when he first heard the track in 1967.